NewsMix: Religion news from around the world

Tuesday

Dec 15, 2009 at 6:26 AMDec 15, 2009 at 6:29 AM

Five pastors arrested without a warrant in China's Shanxi Province as they were en route to file a complaint over the demolition of their church building have been sentenced to prison terms of three to seven years. — CBN.com

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The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops gave its support to an amendment to the health care bill that would prevent federally funded abortions. The bishops' backing was made known in a letter sent to all U.S. Senators. — Catholic News Agency

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Principal Michelle Zundel of Bellview Elementary School in Ashland, Ore. has banned Christmas trees and Santa Claus from her school. Principal Zundel removed a "holiday giving tree" from the school over Thanksgiving break and replaced it with two snowmen. She said earlier a few parents had complained about the tree, which displayed tags suggesting gifts to donate for needy children, but now this swap has upset dozens of parents who say the tree was celebrating the Christmas season and helping those in need. — Christian News Wire

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In what the local vicar general called acts of "barbarism," a priest and a nun have been killed in two separate attacks in the Democratic Republic of Congo. — Catholic News Agency

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More than half of the population of Muslim-majority Turkey opposes members of other religions holding meetings or publishing materials to explain their faith, according to a recently issued survey. — CompassDirect.org

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Ohio authorities have ordered Christian teen Rifqa Bary and her Muslim parents to sit down and discuss their religious views, a caseworker revealed. — CBN.com

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A Philippines massacre which killed at least 57 people may endanger interfaith relations between Catholics and Muslims in the country. The deterioration in relations is in part due to the spread of extremist Wahhabi Islam in recent decades, a priest involved in interfaith dialogue says. — Catholic News Agency

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BEIJING • An underground network of Christian missionaries that usually works with North Korean refugees says it has helped smuggle nearly two dozen Muslim Uighurs out of China following last summer's deadly ethnic violence and the subsequent government crackdown. — Associated Press

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An elderly man, serving as a deacon at a Texas church, slugged it out with three robbers to protect the proceeds of his church's Sunday offering. — CBN. com

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Police detained three Christians after Hindu extremists falsely accused them of forced conversion in Raghavendra Colony, Madugere, Tumkur district in India. — CompassDirect.org

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Ireland's constitutional amendment protecting the unborn could be overturned in a "pivotal" case before the European Court of Human Rights. Some are calling the case "the Roe v. Wade of Europe." — Catholic News Agency

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North Korean Christians have asked Open Doors for more help, especially for fervent prayer. Church leaders told Open Doors, an international Christian organization which supports persecuted believers, that the isolated country has called for another period of "100 days of combat." This mobilization means that practically everyone has to work actively for the state. Any person found on the street without a valid reason is sent to a labor camp. — Christian NewsWire